How Much Do WWE Wrestlers Get Paid?

WrestleMania is WWE’s Super Bowl, and this year’s marquee eventuality is quite star-studded. On Sunday night, 20-year WWE vet Triple H will take on wrestling fable Sting, who stairs into a WWE ring for a initial time in a career that spans 3 decades. The Undertaker is behind following a shocking loss to Brock Lesnar a year ago, and Lesnar will be in this year’s main eventuality fortifying a WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

With such large names during such a large event, one can usually consternation how many income goes to those bigger-than-life performers. It’s an generally impending doubt given a news that Lesnar usually sealed a new agreement with WWE, finale a brief tug-of-war between a pro wrestling graduation and UFC for a former heavyweight champ’s rights. WWE’s engagement contracts are a fascinating subject, and one we’ve damaged down during good fact here. But for a purpose of this story, we’re meddlesome in accurately how – and how many – WWE’s wrestlers get paid.

WWE says that a normal wrestler on a categorical roster makes $500,000 per year, while tip performers make good into a 7 figures. But final an particular wrestler’s compensate is far some-more challenging. Internet rumors pegged one of Lesnar’s former contracts during $5 million for a singular year, while others say a new one is a three-year understanding value $3 million. But online wrestling news and rumors are notoriously unreliable, so we should be heedful of putting too many batch in those numbers.

The usually wrestler for that we have a decisive series is Triple H, and usually afterwards since he – or, some-more specifically, executive VP of talent, live events and artistic Paul Levesque – is a association exec whose remuneration is damaged down in WWE’s latest proxy, filed progressing this month. Last year Levesque done $1.1 million in executive pay, including incentives, and another $1.65 million from in-ring performances. His sum take-home of some $2.8 million done him WWE’s highest-paid executive final year; authority Vince McMahon done $2.4 million.

But that’s a singular example. Even when TMZ got a look during Randy Orton’s divorce filing, noting that The Viper creates $291,666 per month – or $3.5 million per year – in salary, it was misleading where that series came from. The news also doesn’t clarify whether that figure is base income or comprehensive pay. If it’s a former, afterwards Orton’s sum compensate is expected good in additional of $5 million per year. Yet that’s an guess that requires a satisfactory volume of guesswork because, as outlined below, a sum of a wrestler’s compensate are eventually formidable to establish even with a duplicate of his agreement and WWE’s open financial information.

Dave Batista, Triple H, Randy Orton, and Daniel Bryan attend a WrestleMania 30 press discussion during a Hard Rock Cafe New York on Apr 1, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage)

We’ve managed to acquire about a dozen engagement contracts and a handful of other impending papers that have been done open over a years interjection to lawsuits and SEC filings – many have been willingly gathered here – and they illustrate that wrestlers are paid a bottom income and shares of WWE income streams like sell and embankment receipts. That reward income is scarcely unfit to discern, however, since a wrestlers’ share of income is allocated as a apportionment of costs of sales in WWE’s financial filings.

But with a information that’s available, we can during slightest strew some light on usually how wrestlers are rewarded for a risks they take in a ring.